


The Tug

by Neaislove



Series: Divination [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Gen, Tarot Cards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 01:27:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18378134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neaislove/pseuds/Neaislove
Summary: Klaus and Ben tell their own fortune.





	The Tug

**Author's Note:**

> This is the second part to my little experimental writing exercise. It's a lot looser than the last but it was fun.

Two boys sit across from one another. One in black and one in color. Between them both is a deck fanned on its back. Seventy-eight cards from end to end.

Klaus breathes deep, calms himself, steels his ears to the screams around him. Focuses instead on the feel of whispers coming from Ben. They're not across a long hall anymore. There's doors behind them both but they don't have to stand so far apart. The dead scream behind Klaus and the Eldritch things whisper from behind Ben and in the small distance between them there is only their words. Their laughter. Their jokes and stories. Their interpretations.

Between them now their fingers touch either side of the deck. At the crest of the fan. Ben pulls his hood over his head and closes his eyes. Klaus takes a deep breath and asks if they're ready. They start to move.

Klaus runs his fingers across the bottom edge, his fingertips half on the cards and half on the lacquered wooden floor. He feels the seam starkly against his skin. Feels every bump as he passes to a new card. Feels every shudder as Ben does the same across him. He breathes in. Breathes out. Slow and deep. His world narrows down to the slow sweep, sweep, sweep of their fingers across the deck. The feel of it. The sound of it. The tug at the bottom of it all.

The tug is new. A feeling Klaus knows Ben shares with him. Since coming back they've tried to get serious about their powers. They've really tried. Klaus and Ben flourished in unexpected ways. Apart they were growing but together they were a sight to behold. The way the two of them imagined their connection held some truth. They had pull over each other in ways the others didn't. Complimentary.

  
Once Klaus had suggested tarot cards because he was The Seance and it seemed like an apt thing to do. A joke. A coy nod at the craziness of his gift. But after attempting it seriously he knew there was something to it. Together the two of them could pull truth from the cards. The plethora of ghosts at Klaus' back lorded over by The Creator and the squirming hoard of Eldritch beasties that lived beyond Ben's stomach could commune together. Or to them. Just enough to give them a nudge in the right direction.

It was just a feeling. A tug. Stop there. And they did. Together Klaus and Ben could run their hands across the tarot deck again and again and they'd both stop on the same card. Sometimes it was a surge of noise or the absence of it. Sometimes it was just what felt right at the edge of their fingers. It only worked when they read the deck together and only when they did it this way.

Ben liked the motion of it. Repetitive and easy. His body calm for once. His insides not roiling against him like angry snakes or hot coals. Ben could lose himself in the gentle back and forth of his fingers across the cards. He only heard half of what Klaus did so he imagined himself a conduit to his brother's power. But he could hear the things inside of him, the things that were so far away from this world their language was a feeling and note that pressed in on him from all sides. Impossible to describe to anyone who hadn't heard it. Klaus called it whispers. But that was probably because he was so use to everything else being a scream.

What Ben heard when he read the cards were not whispers. It felt like an oppressive sound, never ending but in constant flux. It flooded up to his ears from his stomach and he knew the meaning of it all even though his brain could not pick out a single thing resembling a word. He knew when to stop because the noise raised in pitch. Like an upward inflection. Like the things inside of him were straining to touch Klaus, to be with him. To feel whatever he felt in the moment their fingers brushed the right card.

Stop there. Klaus pulls the card, leaves it face down but sets it beside himself. Back to that spot. They can feel the gap, the missing piece although they don't know what's been pulled yet. Together they sweep the cards again. Four more passes before they stop again. Ben pulls this one. They go again and again. Two more cards pulled.

Eyes still closed, Klaus tucks his fingers under the edge of the fan and scoops the cards. He collects the deck and sets it aside. Only once Ben hears the definite sound of it being put down does he open his eyes. Across from him Klaus is smiling.

He flips the first card.

Six of Swords. Not ideal but par for the course.

Devil. Self explanatory really.

Wheel of Fortune. A sign that things haven't been completely diverted.

The Sun.

Klaus laughs when he flips it. Light and carefree. Ben thinks it sounds like it did all those years ago. During their first go around. It's a good card. Even better knowing that the forces from above and beyond pressed for them to pull it. Ben doesn't know if he'll make it to thirty this go around but this time he's willing to make an effort.

Two brothers sit across from one another. One in black and one in color. Between them four cards. One fortune told from start to end.

**Author's Note:**

> I actually wanted to write this scene to begin with but it didn't fit in to the other piece once I started writing it. I don't know if I'll add more to this but if I do I want to focus a little on how important textures are to Klaus and Ben.
> 
> A basic run down of the cards:  
> Six of Swords: Suffering, keeping your head just above water  
> Devil: Experiencing bondage, being in an unwanted situation, being obsessed, submitting to another  
> Wheel of Fortune: Feeling a sense of destiny, moving in a different direction  
> The Sun: Experiencing greatness, realizing the truth


End file.
